Morning all. Yesterday was such an incredible day of information that I’m still overwhelmed by it all. The president’s magnificent speech, the heartbreaking loss of Maya Angelou, the events throughout the world and the brilliant and continual coverage here. I wish I could just take a full day to catch up, but my sister and her new husband arrive today and life will be hectic. So glad there is a place to come to to feel informed–we are all so fortunate to be here. Bless you, Chips, for founding this home and for Nerdy, LL, LP and all your magnificent fellow bts. You have all created a unique and wonderful place!

I’m with you, Jackie, on keeping up with TOD, POTUS, FLOTUS, VP and SLOTUS, whirlwinds all.

I think the media is having trouble keeping up with just our President.

Our sorry media gets paid to speculate in as gossipy a manner as possible instead of providing cogent analysis based on PBO’s words and deeds.

Making the CBS radio news this morning were two items that began, “The President will…” comment on the devastating effect of cumulative brain injuries in sports and on aid to Syrian rebels.

Infuriates me that MSM allows the GOP (who ain’t got no answers) to criticize everything the President does, while expecting him to solve every problem out there, from the playing field to the killing/refugee fields of the Middle East and Africa. Sheesh.

Andrew Cuomo Has A Real Problem On His Left Flank. Good.
By Alec MacGillis

We’ve spent a lot of time fixated on the Tea Party during this primary season, but a possibly more intriguing internal political struggle is now playing out on the left. And you can bet the Hillary Clinton campaign-in-waiting is paying attention.

The drama is in New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing a serious insurrection on his left flank as he heads into what was supposed to be a blissfully uneventful reelection campaign. An increasingly influential third-party in the state is threatening to withhold its support from the governor this fall, which has set off a remarkable flurry of negotiations this week as Cuomo scrambles to keep the group in the fold.

Cuomo’s first term as governor has been defined by his melding of liberal policies on social issues such as same-sex marriage and gun control with far more centrist if not conservative policies on the economic front, where he has pushed tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. This ideological hybrid has come to dominate the center-left elite consensus of the “Morning Joe”-watching, Acela-riding set, to the consternation of economic populists who wish that bien pensant liberals would get as exercised about rising inequality and stagnating wages as they do about marriage equality. But in New York, at least, there is a social-democratic force in place to push back at concessions to economic conservatism: the Working Families Party, which was founded in 1998 to advocate for progressive policies on bread-and-butter issues and has increasingly become a player to be reckoned with in New York politics.

Rikyrah, this is a very big story so I’m glad to see you’ve posted this.
A battle for the heart and soul and maybe even existence of a progressive alternative to Repubs.
Cuom has done the unthinkable and it appears he may get away with it.

Notice how they tried to manipulate the public last night with this Twitter hashtag #InsideSnowden and silly little PR stunt of having Brian Williams throw a bunch of softball questions at him about what TV shows he likes watching and other nonsense?

They’ve seen the writing on the wall – and Eddie wants to return to the US to the comfort, security and privilege of being a white male in America. He does not want to face justice for his wrongdoing. Instead he wants to be a popular, insta-celebrity with book and movie TV deals, and endless TV appearances. Thankfully, Eric Holder is not having any of that, and he shouldn’t.

NBC also needs to disclose their conflict of interest in this Snowden PR campaign.

I watched the interview and I have not even a single coherent remark to make.
Snowden, both his affect and his words struck me as a visitor from another planet. I simply could not grasp what he was saying or meaning.

Wall Street is focused on GDP data right now. But that’s not the only thing going on in the markets.
GDP data could show a contraction: The U.S. government is set to revise its first quarter GDP figures at 8:30 a.m. ET, and the numbers may show the U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of the year.

“There is market chatter that we could get a significant downward revision to the first estimate due to revised assessments of business investment, equipment spending and construction activity,” wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid, in a market report.

Americans and the global citizens who ride our coattails need to take heed of our indefatigable President and start thinking long-term instead of acting like stock market day-traders. (Since I’m anti-speculation and gambling, I have zero respect for the “Masters of the Universe” who contribute nothing to society except bread crumbs — see Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities.)

America’s future and the living conditions of our future generations depends on a 180-degree about-face on climate chaos (h/t to Bobfr) that rejects the Koch’s 20th century colonial exploitation mindset.

I don’t think the figures are out yet Ms Chips – but Knoller sure is hoping for US fail. THe WHPC do not like that PBO has rebuilt the US economy like NO other political leader in any country has been able to do.

I’m soooo lost with all the many posts I’ve been skimming in the past couple of days I’ve made an EXECUTIVE DECISION to START FRESH here! There’s no way I can delve carefully into each post (as I like to do) without my head spinning, so I’ll content myself with saying THANKS to all the terrific BTs and the ever-involved commenters in this village, then soldier on.

THANKS GUYS AND GALS for this past week-in-three-days! THANKS also to you, President @BarackObama – you’re on a roll, and it’s much appreciated in a country, world, that still remembers the ‘presidential’ ineptitude of #43.

I truly thought all the dimwit politicians belonged to the GOP. Then I discover this about someone who has just been elected in my world

“Western Australia’s Palmer United Party senator-elect Dio Wang says he is unsure whether his campaign was funded by money allegedly siphoned from an account containing funds belonging to a Chinese mining company.”

He doesn’t know how his campaign was funded????? The mind boggles – a Chinese mining company???

Yesterday on Twitter, Laura Rozen tried to play the “Snowden-did-a-good-thing-even-though-he-might-have-done-it-the-wrong-way” game. She claimed that Snowden exposed stuff. I asked her what did he expose that wasn’t known before. She avoided my question and responded “I think he exposed some things.” I further asked Laura Rozen to tell us what thing (s) has Snowden exposed that we didn’t know before or has made things better for the public by his exposing them.

It pains me to see what a Chuck Todd clone Luke has become because I really liked and respected his father. I loved the way Tim Russert did his homework and didn’t let pols weasel their way off the hook when confronted by their hypocrisy or lies. I enjoyed his heartfelt tribute to his Dad in his book about “Big Russ.”

Twitters are outpacing my ability to keep up to date, but it seems to me that the MSM seems to finally be wising up to what a grifter/traitor Greenwald is. MSM loves to talk about themselves and protest “First Amendment rights!” at the drop of the hat, but they also harbor simmering resentment toward those journalists who are now rolling in the dough.

Next week marks the first anniversary of the public unveiling of #Snowdenwald.

Here’s a sweet reminder of where Vox jerk Ezra Klein stood last year.

It's true every day, but I'm pretty proud to work at the Washington Post today.

NBC News needs to be held accountable for their irresponsible behavior. And the fact that this Snowden hashtag has been trending onTwitter since last night is disturbing. I truly believe that Twitter hashtags can be manipulated to trend and make certain people/things seem WAY more important than they are.

CBS radio news this morning had a soundbite from an economist (I think, missed who said this) who said our economy is poised for takeoff and that economic CW (conventional wisdom) is for GDP to record 3.5% to 4% growth for the rest of the year. This person also said that claims for new unemployment claims have dipped to nearly a 7-year low — it’s taken 5 years for President Obama and his team to get us to the top of the ditch that GWB bestowed on this country.

Look for phenomenal growth for the next 3 years as PBO’s executive actions on #ClimateChaos begin to take effect.

We would have catapulted out of that ditch if we didn’t have a Congress full of traitors. Never in American history has the Federal government not done public works projects to help a struggling economy – until now. It is particularly egregrious because our infrastructure is crumbling: this is not a situation where we’re just creating jobs for the economy – these are NECESSARY jobs for the health and future of the country.

Just saw this headline in my morning paper: “Palin set to return to ET (East Tennessee), along with Santorum.” They are coming for a Sevier County Tea Party event to be held at the Smokies stadium. (minor league team). Sevier County is where Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are located. The theme is: “America’s Last Stand.” ………Lord almight, spare me!

Also, just read this story about Dave Ramsey. It’s long but a very interesting and enlightening read. He’s got some REAL issues. Just sayin’.

// Last night, NBC news aired an exclusive with Edward Snowden as he hid behind to the bloody protective cover of noted civil libertarian and anti-police state crusader Vladimir Putin. They say all publicity is good publicity, and perhaps that was going to be true even for this fugitive from law who likes to call himself a whistleblower despite his unwillingness to face the consequences of his leaks. That is, until he decided to take his self importance up a notch and claim that he was a spy. No, not the peeping Tom type but a real, legitimate clandestine operative for the United States. In addition to repeatedly stressing how “high” he was in the intelligence community (well, you know what kind of ‘high’ I’m thinking here), he decided to go the next step and claim the title of a spy, “in the traditional sense”, you know.

That heap of ox excrement was detected even by some of his supporters. Specifically someone who was a real spy in the CIA. Actual former spy Lindsay Moran (also author of the book Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy), who has actually supported Snowden’s actions felt compelled enough by the stink of Snowden’s attempt to hitch his wagon to true American heroes that she came out to call him out. Watch…

…Even more importantly in terms of American national security, how much can we trust Snowden and Greenwald’s statement that Snowden hasn’t handed over a treasure trove of US intelligence documents to the Kremlin in exchange for his asylum and the chance to get famous by appearing on camera from Moscow? Any fair observer Snowden’s interview with Brian Williams will notice that Snowden’s self-centrism and egofest absolutely dominated the hour. The narcissistic self-adulation was creepy.

Snowden’s followers like to tell us that the issue isn’t Snowden. Well, Ed Snowden himself is doing a bang up job of making it about himself. But I digress. After seeing how vulnurable Snowden’s twisted psyche is to stoking and manipulation, the possibility that Snowden willingly revealed classified American secrets to the Russians only rises. Because the man will do anything for fame. //